Mistakes and Second Chances

by lisbeth00

She had fallen through the veil of death, unaware of the path she was doomed to walk. It all seemed like fun and games at the start - another chance. She'd never been so wrong. OOC. fem!Harry. Lovecraftian Horror. Elemental and Black Magics. Femslash. Rated M for language, extreme violence, and mature topics.

45. Losing Weight

Disclaimer: The rights to the Harry Potter series go to J.K. Rowling. All original ideas present in this story belong to me.

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Chapter Forty-Five | Losing Weight

Fleur and I walk deeper and deeper into the forest, stepping over thick roots and old mossy stones as we search for the cottage that we know to be somewhere in here.

"Goddamn this place is well hidden," I grumble, trying to spy for the long-abandoned home through the thick treeline.

"Oui," Fleur agrees, and I can't help but notice how frustrated she looks. I can't imagine what I look like if she's annoyed. "Not even a drop of magic to lead us."

"I mean, it's not like he would have wanted people to find out where he left his Horcruxes," I argue. "But, the cave was relatively easy to find. It just reeked of dark magic."

I pause to glare at a shadowed boulder, barely holding myself back from eviscerating it and the thousand-legged corpses that sing to me from its shadows.

Lip curled in frustration, I continue marching at Fleur's side, occasionally casting my wand out and searching for any sign of… well, anything.

It just seems to be a regular old forest.

"I really hope we actually got this right and we're not running around here for nothing."

Fleur chuckles, blue eyes sweeping left and right. "I never expected this to be easy."

"Guess I got my hopes up after the first one – although, to be honest, that was a fake."

She frowns, nodding politely. "I'm sure we'll find out who this mysterious R.A.B. really is soon enough."

"Here's hoping," I agree, crushing a newborn galaxy beneath my feet.

That shit is really getting old.

Sure, I drank that potion willingly, but the after-effects of it are really starting to irritate me. Seeing nightmares lurking every-which-way… it's enough to drive someone mad.

Thank fuck I'm already crazy.

"Wait, wait, hold up," I say, placing my hand in front of Fleur. "There's something here…" I draw my wand in a straight line ahead of me, watching as the air shimmers. My eyes bug out of my head. "Holy fuck."

"What is it?"

"We just about died."

Fleur curses, studying the barrier. "Merde, you're right. That would have torn us in two." She grimaces. "Hell, it would have turned us into a pile of guts."

I laugh, trying to figure out how to dismantle it. "At least we would make excellent fertilizer."

Snorting, Fleur joins me in my attempt to get through the delightfully terrible magic. "Always with the morbid humour."

"Of course!" I hold my wand perfectly straight, pulling it towards me as I begin to unravel the barrier. "Only way to survive this kinda' life. You've got to laugh at it when you can."

Fleur hums in agreement as she helps me finish destroying the ward. "Very true. Let's keep our eyes open from hereon out, we're obviously on the right path."

"I don't think anyone but us, or experienced curse breakers would say that the dangerous murder magic is the 'right path.' I imagine the usual reaction would be 'Oh dear god, Jim got turned into a meat puddle.'"

Laughing loudly, Fleur pokes me on the shoulder. "Poor Jim. We hardly knew ye."

Stifling my own laughter, I double-check to make sure there was nothing stacked on top of the previous ward. With a sigh of relief, I pat Fleur on the back. "I think we're good to go."

We continue on, and I find myself almost irked to see that there's no other protections in place.

Probably because that means there'll be something just as horrific as an Inferi horde waiting for us as we get closer and closer to the cottage.

"I swear to god if I have to drink another nightmare potion…"

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Fleur states, cocking an eyebrow at me. "And if it does? Well, it's my turn."

"Well I sincerely fucking hope we don't run into one again. Doesn't seem like Voldemort to use the same trick twice though."

"I imagine it will be terrible regardless of whether or not it is a potion."

"You know, I absolutely adore your optimism."

Chuckling, Fleur places a hand on my shoulder. "Tread quietly," she whispers. "There's got to be something nearby. I can feel it in the air."

"In the air?" I reply quietly.

"Figure of speech," she mutters, eyes flicking back and forth. "You can't feel that?"

I shake my head, feeling slightly nervous. Normally I'm the one to pick up on awful magics.

"I believe this is what you felt like when we were trying to get into the cave." She taps her chin when I look at her in confusion. "This is… it's light magic, but it's all wrong. It feels like it's been repurposed to do something horrible."

"Huh."

No wonder I can't feel it. Fleur has a difficult time noticing my magic, so why wouldn't I have a difficult time picking up on hers?

"What do you think it's supposed to do?"

Scowling, Fleur bites her lip. "It's animating something. The trees, grass… something is being animated, but in the worst of ways. The best I could compare it to would be if a puppet were bound in shackles, rather than string. Someone's taken something normal and… turned it into something awful."

"Is that what your magic feels like?"

She nods. "Somewhat, yes. But the plants love my touch… they enjoy moving, dashing around whichever way I let them. This is the touch of a jailor."

"Shit… so is it the trees? What is it?"

Fleur shrugs. "I don't know. I wish I could tell you."

"Well, if the trees start moving and it's not you, shout."

She squeezes my hand as we duck through the underbrush, tree branches scraping over my hair and pinecones crunching heavy boots.

I keep my eyes peeled and wand at the ready, alert for any possible sign of danger in what would normally be an idyllic camping spot.

My nose crinkles as I begin to sense the magic Fleur was speaking of, and I can't help but agree with her description. The magic is sickening, like a steel fist wrapped around the throat of nature itself, yet it still carries the unmistakable tones of what I know to be light magic.

"That's utterly disgusting," I murmur, Fleur meeting my eyes.

"Yes. Yes it is," she agrees, pushing a branch out of the way.

Just as she does that a terrible shrieking echoes out of the forest, the voice of whatever creature Voldemort has under his thumb dual-toned, as if two sheets of metal were ground against each other.

"Fuck," I groan, listening intently for any sign of movement.

"There!" I shout, pointing at a shambling corpse covered in vines and fungi. "Take it down!"

It rushes us, screeching all the while.

It screams even louder when Fleur incinerates it.

"Jesus. What was that thing?"

Fleur kneels in front of it, teeth gritted. "He bound an Inferi with light magic, this is the result."

"What the fuck is up with this guy and Inferi?" I wonder aloud. "Isn't that supposed to be my thing?"

"Hush, there may be more coming."

I feign dragging a zipper over my lips, keeping my ears perked up just in case any more undead come running our way.

"Doesn't sound like there's more," I whisper, looking about. "Keep your eyes peeled."

Fleur walks across the forest floor in a slight crouch, spinning around just as we hear another shriek.

Without waiting a moment, she fires off a cluster of spells, another should meeting my ears.

"They're coming."

I jump away just as one of the beasts swings its claws past my ear, I duck, hissing as I roll over a particularly sharp stone.

"Motherfucker," I groan, decapitating the Inferi with a flick of my wrist.

I gasp in fright when thick vines shoot from its neck and latch onto the lost limb, dragging it back with a sickening squelch.

"Fleur! They can regenerate!"

She shouts an affirmative back to me, and I can hear the roaring of her flames as she incinerates each and every crime against nature that comes her way.

I let out an overpowered incendio, eyes widening as the monster shrugs it off, plant-like tendrils rippling across its skin and tying itself back together faster than I can burn it.

"Motherfucker."

I replace the regular fire with a controlled burst of Felfyre, destroying the Inferi in an instant.

"You good?" I ask, turning to see Fleur covered in ashes.

"Yes, you?"

I pat my arms and legs. "Everything seems to be in one place."

She nods. "Those were… interesting."

"Yeah," I run my fingers through my hair. "Yeah, they were. Apparently, regular Inferi weren't good enough for Voldemort. At least I couldn't hear them. They must have been too far gone."

"That's good to know," Fleur states, more to herself than to me. "Let's keep going. I think there was probably only a few of them."

"I wonder why he didn't use those more. There was no mention of them in any textbooks, and they were quite extensive on the kinds of monsters he cooked up."

Fleur lifts her palms to the sky as she steps over a particularly large knot. "Must have been too difficult to create, or too costly."

I grunt in reply.

"I just know things are going to be worse."

"Don't say that!"

"What!" I shout, throwing my hands up in the air. "That's how these things always go! You start with a little bit of the familiar," I point at the pile of ashes that once was a person, "and then things get ramped up. Trust me, things are only beginning."

Fleur sighed loudly. "You've cursed us just by saying that. You know Fate exists and apparently has an out for you."

"Ah fuck."

"Yes. Ah fuck."

I pat her on the back. "We survived the man himself, we can take any monsters he throws at us."

"Sure hope you're right," Fleur mutters. "Come on, all the magic is coming from this direction."

She points what I imagine to be northward. I've honestly lost track of where we are.

"Lead the way."

I follow Fleur as she takes me towards the source of magic, sidestepping brambles and various bits of flora that I'm quite sure are about to kill us at any moment.

Things are bad when you're checking your back to make sure a bush isn't trying to strangle you.

"Hey, is that a shack?" I ask, pointing in the distance.

"I think that is," Fleur agrees. "Let's not rush in. There's sure to be more wards about."

"Wasn't going to run in anyways, considering we nearly got turned into a puddle of viscera a little while ago."

Fleur snorts amusedly. "Again, always with the gallows humour."

I roll my eyes. "Only way to survive."

As I say that, the ground shudders.

I have to stop myself from squealing in shock as a mass of… well, meat, pulls itself from the ground - thick tendrils of soupy flesh lashing out towards us.

"Duck!"

We leap out of the way, Fleur immediately opening with a barrage of spellfire, the magic blasting chunks of bloody flesh off the amorphous blob.

"This one regenerates too!" I shout, snapping off a series of rotting curses as the meat liquifies, running back up the body of the… whatever it is, and being reabsorbed.

My rotting curses strike true, the shining flesh turning gangrenous and falling off in chunks, a sickly green vapour emanating from them as they strike the ground.

Fleur douses the monster in fire, and while it doesn't make any noise, I can tell it's hurt.

Its tentacles lash out, slicing trees in half and crushing boulders in its wake. A thick cloud of dust bursts from the ground as the dirt is compacted underneath its strikes. Suddenly, the creature tears itself in half, revealing a maw full of glittering, jagged teeth.

The same green vapour as before bursts from its mouth, and my eyes widen in surprise as it begins to erode the plant-life around it.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I mutter, shooting a powerful gust of air forward and forcing the vapours back into the creature's mouth – a facsimile of cheeks stuffing up comically as it's forced to swallow down its own poison.

Fleur moves to attack but gets caught unawares – a tentacle slamming into her chest and knocking her into a tree.

"Fleur!"

I let out a stream of Felfyre, incinerating the tendrils that reach towards me.

The creature rears back, sinking into itself. I frown as it slams its tentacles against the ground, propelling itself in my direction.

"Fuck!" I just barely avoid it as I roll forward, dodging underneath the monster as it flies overhead.

"Jesus," I grouse, shooting another smattering of rotting curses into its back as it attempts to turn itself around, laying waste to the area around it. "Fleur? Are you okay!?"

The muted groan I hear reassures me. "Do you need help?"

Another groan, this one more insistent. "Fuck."

Drawing from the shadows around me I fashion myself a sphere of pure darkness, levitating it above the monster.

Teeth gritted, I push, opening up the floodgates and forcing the sphere to compress. The pounding in my ears grows stronger, a heavy ache reverberating through my skull with every bit of magic I fill the shadow with.

Letting out an ungodly roar, I let the ball drop.

It explodes with such a force that I have to throw myself to the ground, dodging the chunks of stone and flesh that soar overhead. I howl in pain my eardrums burst violently, barely noticing as a bit of stone clips the side of my face, although I definitely feel the remnant magic clinging to it.

Another gust of wind pushes the dust away, revealing the inevitable crater.

My legs shaking, I trudge forward to make sure the damn thing is dead.

"Oh thank god," I utter, only noticing a few bits of flesh leftover from the massive explosion.

With unsteady hands, I obliterate the remainders of whatever kind of nightmare that flesh-beast was, before forcing the regenerative process I blessed myself with and stitching my eardrums back together.

Fast as I can, I rush back to Fleur, finding her huddled beneath the same tree she was launched into.

"Are you okay? You said you needed my help. Well- you grunted, but I- "

"Shush," she growls, spitting a glob of blood on the ground. "I'm fine, I just need help getting up." She gestures to the her-shaped impression in the bark. "Bit unsteady."

"Yeah, yeah," I blurt, reaching over and pulling her to her feet, letting her balance herself against my shoulder.

"That thing dead?"

"Dead as dead can be."

She nods shakily. "Good. I think I know how you felt in the caves now."

"What do you mean?"

"The Dead scream out to you, and the Living scream out to me," she explains, gesturing at the forest around us. "This place has been corrupted, and it's like the trees themselves are drilling into my skull. They don't… speak in words, so much as they paint a picture."

"It's a feeling instead of a language."

"Yes, yes it is."

Battered after the fight, Fleur and I finally stumble our way to the entrance of the shack.

With trepidation, I open the door, sighing in relief when nothing erupts from the ground or runs from the shadows trying to attack us.

Well, nix on the shadows – seeing as they're still talking to me.

"Lumos," I mutter, lighting up the shack and looking about - unable to stop the smile creeping over my face as the creatures in the dark are destroyed.

This place is beyond dilapidated. It might as well be a relic at this point.

The ceiling sags inwards underneath the weight of wood-rot and moss, miscellaneous fungi growing in every corner of the entry room.

Not like the room is much of one either. What was once a kitchen lies in shambles, rusted pots and pans laying about on the floor. The shreds of a door are scattered about in front of the only other room within the shack, the frame around it obliterated by what looks to have been spellfire.

"He must have killed the rest of them," I wonder aloud, glancing at the other marks on the walls. Burns, splinters, and smashed wplaster tell signs of a massive, and very one-sided battle.

"It should be hidden around here somewhere," Fleur interjects, levitating bits and pieces of rubble out of the way as she scans the room.

I tap her shoulder softly. "Wait." I point at a loose floor-plank, looking much less destroyed than its surroundings.

Hands trembling, I lift the plank, flinching at the hideous groan it emits as I pry it from the floor.

Resting within the foundations is a tiny wooden box, covered in dirt yet looking remarkably untarnished.

I lift it out of the nook, running my wand over the box to detect any potential trap.

"There's nothing. I think that was it."

"Are you sure?"

I look up at her, nodding. "Yes, I'm sure."

Cracking the lid open, I look inside.

"Oh fuck."

Death's signature stares me in the face, emblazoned into a stone resting in the trap of a crudely fashioned silver ring.

Something tickles at the back of my mind as I reach into the box. My fingers touch the ring and -

Suddenly, I scream out in pain as my hand withers before my eyes, black flames licking across my fingers and steadily rising towards my elbow.

"Fuck!" I shout, frantically trying to put out the cursed fire.

"Helene!"

"Nothing is working!" I screech, dousing my arm in every kind of magical water I can think of – along with a smattering of flame freezing charms. "Shit! Shit!"

I nearly crumple to the ground as the pain increases, the flames licking away at the crook of my elbow.

In mad desperation, I slice my arm off just below the bicep, howling in agony as the rotten appendage falls to the ground.

Fleur tackles me away from the burning limb, eyes widening in fear as she points at my bleeding stump – the mutilated limb still glowing from the cursed flames.

"It's still burning!"

I grab her by the shoulder with my remaining hand. "Torch my arm. Use your fire."

Her eyebrows shoot up dramatically. "But- "

"Just do it!"

Teeth gritted and eyes mad with fear she places her wand against my stump, funneling a jet of Holy Fire onto it.

My mind shuts down, and I can feel myself screaming – shrieking in anguish as my skin is doused in cleansing flames.

I collapse to the ground, writhing in pain. My throat burns as I eke out a mewling whine, my cauterized stump dragged roughly across the splintered floor.

"Helene? Are you okay?" Fleur whimpers, hoisting me up to my feet. "Are you okay?"

I vomit, painting the floor with my breakfast.

"Helene?"

"I'm… I'm going to be okay," I rasp, moving to place my hand on her shoulder before remembering that it no longer exists.

I have to force myself to look at what remains of my arm.

Knotted, scorched flesh ending just where my elbow should be – a clump of charcoal bone jutting out of the stump, the end of it melted under the heat of Fleur's flames.

"Fuck."

I do my best to ignore the pain as I push past Fleur, pointing my wand at the ring and blasting it with a controlled dose of Felfyre.

I let the spell hold, making damn sure that the cursed ring is completely and utterly destroyed.

Letting the spell go, I wave off the rest of the flames – banishing them into the ether.

The gem – stone – lays in a puddle of molten silver, untouched by the power of my spell.

"The final Hallow," I mutter, reaching down and picking it up.

I stare at the tiny stone, the familiar cold of Death rushing down my arm and setting my body alight with power.

My eyes close against my will as I allow the power to suffuse me, sighing at the calming sensation of magic so delightfully familiar.

"Helene?"

Mind hazy, I bring myself back to reality and tuck the stone into my pocket.

"Sorry, I just… I finally have everything of Death's. I think it did something to me, or at least, it feels like it."

She places her hand on my shoulder, kissing me furiously.

"Don't you ever, ever do something so stupid again!" she sobs, and I can taste her tears on our kiss. "Why on earth did you pick it up?"

"I… "

Scowling, I spit on the ground. "There was a compulsion charm. A strong, yet terribly subtle one. I… I picked it up without thinking. There must have been some sort of shielding on the box that I couldn't detect. I had no idea there was any magic within."

She throws her arms around me and I hiss in pain.

"Oh, shit, shit! I'm so sorry!" she rambles, pulling back.

I shake my head. "It's fine. I'll be fine."

"But- your arm!"

"When the hell would I let a little thing like that stop me?" I ask her, one eyebrow raised. "I'll just have to… readjust. Imbalanced weight and all that. Not like I can heal it anyways. Whatever that curse was… it packed a punch." I pause, both from the pain and a sudden sense of horror growing over me. "Fleur?"

"I feel it too."

We're thrown to our feet as what feels like an earthquake comes over us, the ground trembling and bits of the shack falling in around us.

I stumble over my desiccated arm, doing my best to ignore it as I force Fleur and I out the door, the two of us collapsing onto the rough dirt outside.

Not like being inside the shack was much of an 'inside' to begin with.

"Oh dear god," Fleur mutters, staring up in horror as a massive tree pulls itself from the ground, propping itself up on hundreds of rotten arms.

The bark splits, flesh-stripped faces and limbs peek out from the cracks - hundreds of the dead and decayed packed into the tree like a coffin and granting it life.

I nearly find myself vomiting at the sight of it, but I happened to have emptied my stomach out losing my left arm.

Gonna' take me some time to get used to that.

"Fucking hell."

The tree-corpse amalgamation groans horribly, a thousand voices ringing out in one horrible chorus.

"Fuck."

It must be nearly a hundred feet tall, thick as a house and filled to the brim with corpses.

"Get down!" Fleur shouts, knocking me out of the way as it swings at us, a chain of bone and muscle lashing outwards like a whip.

We narrowly avoid it, slamming into the ground as it tears up the vegetation around us, slicing the shack in two with an ease that terrifies me.

This isn't good.

I ignore the stinging in my cauterized stump as I awkwardly haul myself up, nearly falling over as I attempt to balance myself too far to the right.

"Christ," I groan, twisting out of the way as another splinter of bark comes flying my way, the monstrous tree cleaving an oak in two as it drags itself towards us. "Any ideas?"

"Fire. Lots of fire."

I nod in Fleur's direction. "Sounds like an excellent plan to me."

She opens up with a stream of Holy Fire, decimating everything in its path.

The tree howls as it's set alight, broken arms shriveling underneath the onslaught of pure White Magic.

I join Fleur, combining her flames with my own, the green and white mingling together and forming an effervescent purple - shining brilliantly as it tears a chunk out of the tree-beast.

Bile lines my throat as a massive clump of bodies falls from the hole in the creature - and I mean clump quite literally.

The bodies are fused together, one horrid mass of screaming faces and broken arms poking out of the ball of flesh in every direction. The smoldering chunk of undead tries to roll its way to us, the hundreds of corpses packed into the tree working as some sort of hivemind to drive its living vehicle.

Disgusted, I pelt the mass with a flurry of the most destructive curses I can manage.

Bits and pieces of flesh and bone fly off the unholy amalgamation and scatter across the landscape, ribbons of blood trailing in their wake. I hold back my growing nausea as I reveal more and more of the interior of… whatever it is.

I notice people from every walk of life, immortalized in the sickest way imaginable. Men, women, the elderly, children. It seems no one was safe from Voldemort - though I should know better than anyone.

Not better than these people.

I do vomit this time, having just crushed the rib cage of what looks to be a teenage boy, skin gray and barely a strip of flesh left clinging to his cheek. His torso is fused to the hip of an elderly woman. Her body lays limp, dragged across the forest floor as the nightmare continues forward, chunks of gangrenous flesh sloughing off and sticking to every blade of grass she comes into contact with.

Screaming in outrage, I push every ounce of magic I can into cleansing the earth of whatever sickening construct Voldemort has created from these people.

What seems like a hundred spells come pouring from my wand, pulling the shadows around them like a siphon; mingling together to create something terribly, terribly powerful.

It strikes the creature with a mighty crack, boring a hole through the mass of corpses and wiping away their very existence.

The spell splits apart, magical shrapnel bursting through the rest of the flesh-beast and tearing it asunder.

The tree spins about much quicker than it should, freezing at the sight of its lost bodies disintegrating. Although, I'm not quite sure I could say it sees.

Fleur has had its attention, but it roars in fury as the corpses it once housed crumble to dust.

I find myself helpless before it.

I've already spent myself killing that other nightmare from earlier, not to mention the plant-Inferi hybrid that rushed us after the wards.

"Fleur!" I shout, sending a panicked look in her direction.

I don't think I can get away with dying again.

The creature lumbers towards me, ignoring every strike sent its way as Fleur desperately tries to hold it back.

I'm barely holding myself up as it is, but I do my damndest to shuffle backwards, feet dragging as I pull away with every ounce of strength I can muster. The throbbing in my arm grows stronger, the pain nearly crippling.

Ha.

Suddenly, the tree moves faster, tendrils whipping about its body. One nearly clips me as I duck under it, barely dodging the attack and wincing as I feel a powerful gust of wind pull my head to the side.

It keeps moving forward, and Fleur keeps trying to do everything she can to stop it.

Spell after spell, she throws everything she can at the indomitable force. Roots springing up from the ground and wrapping around its hundreds of rotten limbs. Holy Fire burning across its surface like napalm.

Nothing seems to phase it.

Voldemort must have put a hell of a lot of effort into creating this nightmare, and it shows.

A cacophony of rough, screaming voices drives nails through my mind as the monster tenses.

Knowing what's about to happen, I jump out of the way - a last-ditch effort as the tree lashes out again, cratering the ground where I just stood and crushing stone to dust.

I can hear Fleur roar in fury, unable to see through the whirlwind of debris.

I try to shout out to her, to let her know I'm fine, but my voice is choked out by the thick cloud of smog.

Brilliant flashes of white come out from the dust cloud. Desperate to know what's happening, I lift my hand and muster the last bit of magic I can dredge up, casting away the smoke and freeing up the view.

My eyes widen as I see Fleur with her hands outstretched, nose bleeding as she grasps at the air with clawed fingers. Her pupils have thinned into slits, and I can see fangs poking out over her bottom teeth.

Christ, I think this is the first time I've seen her go full Veela.

She lets out an unholy, birdlike screech, and I clap my hands over my ears.

Struggling to keep my eyes open, I watch in rapture as she begins to systematically tear the monster apart - utilizing her unique magic to the fullest and peeling thick strips of bark off the tree with a wave of her hands.

She twists the skin of the beast into a spike and drives it through its centre, a thick splash of blood bursting from its core and spilling onto the ground.

Fleur slashes at it with blades of water, drowning the creature in the substance and slowing its movement. She freezes it to the spot, pushing at its side with a wave of ice and knocking it over, the ground shaking mightily as it crashes, sending me to my feet.

She stalks forward, seemingly towering over the hundred foot tall monster - trapped like a turtle on its back.

Raising her hands, great thick roots burst from the ground and wrap round the tree. Flicking her wrist, fire runs up the vines burning every inch of the creature it touches.

A hundred voices scream out in pain as she clenches her fist. I grin as the creature screams horrifically, thick chunks of bark flying as the roots tighten.

I break into laughter as it collapses in on itself - finally dead - a rain of blood bursting out of the destroyed creature and out across the forest.

The crimson rain is frigid as it spatters my bare skin - soaking into my clothes. I can hear the voices in the shadows rejoicing at the death of something so unnatural. Even the monsters of the deep and damned finding sickness in Voldemort's creation.

Fleur spins around at my laughter, and I can't help but find her manic stare to be absolutely hilarious; painted in blood from head to toe. Her eyes bloodshot and sodden hair stuck to her face and neck.

"Helene!" she shouts, sprinting towards me.

She nearly stumbles a few times, her whole body trembling as she collapses on top of me, sending the two of us sprawling across the forest floor.

"You're okay," she whispers, kissing my neck, her bloodsoaked hair dripping all over me.

I can't find it in me to complain.

"I'm fine." I lift the cauterized stump of my left arm and wave it in her face. "See, I'm all right."

She pauses, blinking furiously.

"Oh."

Fleur lifts one hand, pointing at my right side, and then pointing at my left. "You're…"

She blinks again.

Then she starts cackling like a mad woman.

I join her, relief washing through my body just as I know it is through hers.

Relief at being alive. Relief at her having survived. Relief at having destroyed another Horcrux.

It feels good.

I gasp as she licks my neck, her laughter all but forgotten as sharp teeth nip at the skin just below my jaw, talons dragging across my side. "Helene…"

Struggling, I place my remaining hand on Fleur's shoulder, pinching her.

"What?"

I sigh. "Fuck. Fleur, if we're going to... well, fuck, I think we need to get cleaned up." I flick one of her fangs. "Also, you're fully Veela'd out. I think you're in a bloodlust. Emphasis on the lust."

She growls, deep in her throat, but I can see the recognition in her eyes as she looks down at herself.

"Oh."

She pinches at her jumper, scowling as she lets go and rubs her fingers together, the blood already beginning to congeal. She tries to shake it off, the blood sticking to her claws. "This is disgusting."

I reach up and pluck a bit of rotten flesh from her hair, Fleur nearly vomiting at the sight of it. "You're telling me."

"I… oh fuck. Oh."

Fleur staggers to her feet, shaking her head about to clear it before drawing me up as well, a dazed, yet nauseous expression on her face.

I squeeze her arm, mustering up my last two brain cells and getting out the only words I can manage. "Bath. Now. Then bed."

She nods mutely, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and bringing us back to Slytherin's chambers.